Hidden stories told through art

Page Tools

Doug Pentland with his artwork Our voices should be heard and not denied, part of an exhibition by people who grew up in institutions.Photo: Joe Armao

Decades have passed, but Doug Pentland still vividly recalls how
he was punished as a five-year-old at a Stawell institution for the
disabled.

"They would put you in the single room and they would drug you,"
he says. "I remember that very well."

He was forced to stand with his hands behind his head for hours
and lived in fear of other residents. "They hit you with their
boot, they would pull your hair, scratch your face," he says.

When authorities came to take Doug Pentland away from his
family, it was the start of a 30-year ordeal of being shunted
between institutions across the state.

Now 62, Mr Pentland is one of 40 people who have collaborated
with artists on an exhibition illustrating experiences behind the
walls of Victorian institutions. Like Mr Pentland, most of the 40
were diagnosed with mild intellectual disabilities when they were
young and were taken from their families.

Mr Pentland's artwork, Our voices should be heard and not
denied, includes photographs depicting three stages of his
life.

The final picture shows a wardrobe and the caption: "When I
finally got out it felt like I had been let out of a cupboard."

Since his release from a Sunbury home in 1969, Mr Pentland has
traced his family and tried to make up for lost time.

He was given little education as a child but has since learnt to
read and write at TAFE.

With the help of a university student, he has written a book
about his life. He lives in Clayton and has become an advocate for
people with disabilities, talking to police, doctors and university
students.

One of the organisers of the exhibition, Sue Smith from stART
Community Art, said people who had been institutionalised had
worked with photographers and artists to illustrate their
stories.

"They've expressed that it's a hidden part of our country's
history, and they have long wanted it to be recorded," Ms Smith
says.

Mr Pentland wants the community to know what happened to people
like him.

"A lot of people said I should never have been in an institution
in the first place," he says.

The Hidden Lives exhibition is at the
Collingwood Gallery until April 26.